Artists come together in support of saving Jalan Sultan

Monday, 06 February 2012 09:19

Many artists are coming together for the Petaling Street Community Art Project tomorrow in support of saving Jalan Sultan in Kuala Lumpur from being acquired to make way for My Rapid Transit (MRT) project.

One of the artists involved is theatre activist Soon Choon Mee.

“I believe in development but not at the expense of the heritage value. People should stop looking at the surface value but at the core value of things.

“Tomorrow, I have planned something different from my theatrical antics. I will be lining up empty bottles that I have collected over the last few years from my kitchen along Jalan Sultan, lighted up with candles.

“These bottles are simple representation of life due to their significant yet overlooked presence in our daily lives. I have been collecting them not knowing what I would do, so tomorrow it will all serve its purpose.

“Just like the Kongming lanterns where people write their wishes and set it out to the sky during the mid-autumn festival, I want the people to write their support to save Jalan Sultan on these bottles lined up from the Gospel Hall Church until the Lok Aun coffeehouse,” she said.

There will be a lot of booths and art activities throughout the evening from 8pm to midnight to gather support to preserve the age-old buildings along Jalan Sultan.

Property owners along Jalan Sultan were issued letters by Attorney-General and Department of Director-General of Lands and Mines (KPTG) about two weeks ago asking them to sign a document giving consent to move out of their premises for six months for MRT Corp to facilitate tunnelling work.

If they fail to move out the land would be acquired automatically under Land Acquisition Act 1960.

Petaling Street Community Art Project project director Yeoh Lian Heng said property owners were being pushed to the corner because either way they were still the losers.

“The letters did not state the form of compensation for the owners during that period.

“There is also no guarantee that buildings would be safe to occupy after the tunnelling work. Some buildings are more than 100 years old and the foundation might be weak. “There are many drug addicts in this area, whom might occupy the vacant buildings,” he said.

Yeoh said the property owners were demanding for a public consultation.

“We want MRT Corp to study and show reports on the social and environmental impact the MRT project would cause to the area. We also want to know how they were planning to preserve the old buildings.

From The Star